November 19, 2019 - Droog Magazine periodical for investigative journalism

Stomping on Hitler's top hat

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2019| Auctions | Press | Certificates of Authenticity

Again an upcoming Hitleriana and other nazi rubbish auction in Germany has caused much uproar. It started with an open letter by Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chairman of the European Jewish Association, to the auctioneers. In this letter the Rabbi asked them to withdraw the auction, because “some things particularly when so metaphorically blood soaked, should not and must not be traded.”

This is about the umpteenth Nazi auction of the Hermann Historica auction house in Munich. This company, which initially operated under the name Graf Klenau, has been launching a stream of Hitleriana and other Nazi memorabilia for more than fifty years now. A substantial part of these items was not produced until after 1945, however.

This time a top hat attributed to Hitler, Eva Braun's alleged straw hat and loads of dresses and fragrances, Rudolf Hess' prison items from Spandau, an almost endless row of Nazi cutlery and bibs and all sorts of materials from Hermann Goering. The only thing that seems to be missing is the much-sought-after seminal emission box of Joseph Goebbels.

The top hat in particular attracts a lot of media attention. Just about all media on all continents report about it. Which is rather strange, because the auction house's photo of this headgear shows a top hat in very good condition. It is allegedly looted by an American officer in 1945.

Now, on April 30, 1945, an American serviceman had indeed looted a top hat from Hitler's apartment. He was Richard Marowitz (ca. 1926-2014) scout in 222nd I&R platoon, 42nd (Rainbow) Division and of Jewish descend. In a video interview [on 9' 45"] from 1995, made for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, he tells what he found in Hitler's bedroom:

“I opened a closet, it was clean. I saw something dark on an upper shelf. So I pulled over a chair, climbed up and grabbed this... thing. [He shows a flat object] Didn't look like that, originally. I pulled it out, looked inside, and I saw... “A.H.” Now I was really mad. Having just gone to Dachau... So I threw it on the floor and jumped on it. This is the result.”


Left: Hitler's alleged top hat, 2019; right:Richard Marowitz and Hitler's top hat, 1995.

The top hat shown by Marowitz is clearly different from the top hat shown by Hermann Historica.


Left: Richard Marowitz and the inside of Hitler's top hat, 2002; right: top hat, 2019.

The auction house claims that its top hat originates from the same Munich apartment, but was looted by another American, one L. Frankenfield, who allegedly was commanding intelligence officer in the Greater Salzburg district, Austria.

However, the name of this officer only appears at shady auction houses that previously traded allegedly authentic Hitler and Braun underwear. In short: this material, washed or not, is a bit smelly.

Morally reprehensible trade

Back to Rabbi Margolin. He writes in his open letter that, in view of the increasing anti-Semitism in Europe and in particular in Germany, he fears that the Nazi stuff will be bought by those who glorify the Nazi regime and want to justify it. He also states that trading in this junk is not illegal. The rabbi is only partially right in that, because it is illegal to sell items as authentic, while they are clearly not. One calls this: swindle.

Genuine, but illegal

To my surprise, I discovered in the auction catalog a few letters and a sketch by Hitler that are authentic. Hitler produced this material in 1906-1908 for his childhood friend August Kubizek (1888-1956). After Kubizek's death, his heirs gave it on loan to the Oberösterreichisches Landesarchiv in Linz (Austria). One of them recently picked it up and is now trying to sell these early Hitler items in Munich.

An illegal action, because the export of manuscripts of fifty years or older requires an export license, according to the the Bundesdenkmalschutz - the Austrian government organization charged with safeguarding the national heritage. Such a permit has not been applied for.

The Bavarian Landeskriminalamt has since been notified of this intended illegal sale. It is not yet clear whether it is going to intervene or whether this controversial material can be bought by a some depraved collector.

The auction house's response to the open letter

 

Hermann Historica's managing director Bernhard Pacher told the German press that he has received numerous hate e-mails since Rabbi Margolin's protest. He claims that the majority of his customers are museums, state institutions, and private collectors, who would critically deal with the Nazi past. He distances himself from bidders who want to buy the objects from an ideological point of view. “It is up to us to prevent the wrong people from getting hold of it. Unfortunately it is unavoidable that this or that person with a wrong background slips through.”

These are rather hollow phrases: the auction house was founded in the 1960s by a convicted criminal (as we reported before); former Nazis and other scammers were hired as experts in the 1970s to the 1990s; former Nazis were among the regular customers and buyers. The only thing that has changed in the last thirty years is that the old Nazis have made way for other swindlers.

The buyers, however, are not necessarily right-wing extremists. Our own research shows that there is little coherence that can be said about the regular customers of these types of auction houses, except that they are people with an excess of money and a lack of common sense.

See also: 'Hitler's hat. A film by Jeff Krulik' (2002-2004), for the full story on Richard Marowitz; www.jeffkrulik.com/hitlershat/
For more about the Nazi counterfeiting circuit in 2019, see:
www.droog-mag.nl/hitler/2019/index.html

© Bart FM Droog, 2019

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